Pray Now 4: DR Congo Elections UpdateAndy Freeman - 5 Dec 2011

You may have read our recent blog asking for your prayers for the Democratic Republic of Congo as it went into a crucial election. 

We wanted to say thanks for praying and give an update.

The elections went ahead on 30th November as planned.  There were some acts of violence (as yet unsubstantiated) and some reports of election fraud.  Human Rights Watch in particular have raised concerns. 

Despite this observers from the African Union called it a “successful holding of elections” and urged all parties to accept the results.

Votes are now being counted and this takes some time.  At time of writing this article about 15% of votes had been declared, with a narrow lead for current President Joseph Kabila (940,000) over Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) leader Etienne Tshisekedi.  However, Mr Tshisekedi has claimed he will gain enough votes to win.

The vote counting takes a long time and is open to problems.  DR Congo is two-thirds the size of Western Europe but has hardly any road or rail links between its major cities.  It has 30 million registered voters and 18,000 parliamentary candidates.

Please pray for:

• An honest and fair voting process.
• Peace in this period of transition.
• The presidential candidates Joseph Kabila & Etienne Tshisekedi.
• A just result and peaceful future for the country.